Cairo (AFP) The United States is increasing pressure on its Middle Eastern allies to force the Wagner Group, a military contractor with close ties to the Russian president, out of the escalating chaos of Libya and Sudan in recent years.
As the Biden administration launches a broader push against mercenaries, it will bring an effort to explain by US officials. In recent months, the United States has imposed new sanctions on the Wagner Group over Russia’s growing role in the war in Ukraine.
The group is owned by Russian oligarch Evgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Pentagon calls it a replacement for the Russian Ministry of Defense. The Kremlin denies any connection.
For months, the Biden administration has worked with regional powers Egypt and the United Arab Emirates to force military leaders in Sudan and Libya to join forces with the group, according to more than a dozen officials in Libya, Sudan and Egypt. I have been pressured to end the relationship. They asked for anonymity so they could speak freely and because they are not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.
“Wagner is obsessed with them [American officials],” said an Egyptian official with direct knowledge of the meeting. “It’s at the top of every meeting.”
The group has not disclosed its activities, but its existence is known from field reports and other evidence. In Sudan, he was associated with former strongman Omar al-Bashir, but now works with the military leader who replaced him.In Libya, Khalifa, a military commander based in eastern Libya.I have a relationship with Haftar.
Wagner has deployed thousands of agents in African and Middle Eastern countries, including Mali, Libya, Sudan, Central African Republic and Syria. Analysts say his goal in Africa is to support Russia’s interests amid growing global interest in the resource-rich continent. Legal experts to work with US on January accused of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity in Mali fighting alongside government forces.
Prigozhin did not respond to requests for the press department of his Concord Group, of which he is the owner.
The group’s role in Libya and Sudan was the focus of recent talks between CIA Director William Burns and Egyptian and Libyan officials in January.
Burns and Blinken have asked the El-Sisi government to help persuade supporters in Sudan and Libya to end the deal with Wagner, an Egyptian official briefed on the meeting said. Told.
Sudan’s leaders have been receiving repeated US news of Wagner’s growing influence over Egypt and the Gulf countries in recent months, a senior Sudanese official said. In Libya, Burns met in Tripoli with Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dubeiba, head of one of Libya’s two rival governments.
Wagner’s mercenaries have been stationed in Libya since 2018, supporting his Hifter forces fighting Islamist militants in eastern Libya, according to UN experts. The group was also involved in the failed attack on Tripoli in April 2019.
US African Command AFRICOM estimated that about 2,000 Wagner mercenaries were in Libya between July and September 2020 before the ceasefire.
Since the ceasefire in 2020, Wagner’s activities have focused on oil facilities in central Libya, and Libyan officials said they continue to provide military training to Hifter forces. It is unknown how many Wagner mercenaries are still in Libya.
Another Libyan official said US officials are demanding that the mercenaries be withdrawn from the oil facilities.
Observers say there is as yet no evidence that pressure from the Biden administration has had any results in Sudan or Libya.
